He cites Cain Velasquez, Ryan Bader, CB Dollaway and John Moraga as teammates. All have had successful MMA careers.

Sanders represents a difficult test. He should be desperate, which makes him dangerous. Sanders is 11-2, but has lost his past two in a row. He was stopped in the second round of his Dec. 9 scrap against Andre Soukhamthath. He took a submission loss to Iuri Alcantata on March 4.